A few years ago, someone suggested to me that I should join Facebook, in particular to advertise my books via that social network. It seemed a reasonable and up to date idea. I did and made a business page for PLP Publishings at the same time.

I have to say that I never liked Facebook, and, though it seems that people relate their daily lives, willingly and for as many as possible to see and read, I gradually formed a very negative opinion of it. I live in reality not a virtual world and if I want to know about someone, I contact them directly. Maybe it is my psychiatrist ‘hat’ that I still wear, even though now retired, but I know the value of personal contact and interactions. Knowledge shared through the internet with many so called ‘friends’, i.e. people tagged onto a list, is no substitute for true friendship, which takes time and effort, and, more than that, Facebook can take a lot of valuable time out of the lives of young and old alike.

However, one day a real but also a ‘Facebook friend’ commented that she wanted to complain to Facebook as she had had a very disturbing video arrive on her Facebook page via a ‘friend’. I then looked at my page of Facebook, and lo and behold, via her ‘friend’ status, it arrived on mine. She had not sent it and was horrified but, so that it would not be sent anywhere from my page, I had no option but to take her off my friend’s list and, hopefully, get rid of the video in that way. I did not look at my Facebook page very often, maybe once every month or so, and who knows what other ‘nasties’ could find or had found their way onto my page without my knowledge?

Almost every day recently, I have emails from Facebook saying that ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’ etc want to be my friends or ‘do you know’ ‘a’, ‘b’ or ‘c’ etc.

So, I decided that advertising or selling my books via the business page was not worth the risk of any disturbing information arriving on my page or the constant intrusion from Facebook.

Whatever else can happen via Facebook is outside my experience, but internet bullying etc all occur with devastating results for those affected. Teenagers write and later may regret or even forget their foolishness, but not so Facebook.

After searching ‘how can I delete my account from Facebook’ on Google,  I eventually found a URL which led to being able to delete my account. I presume the PLP Publishings page has gone too, but, to be quite honest, I haven’t looked. If I tried to sign on again to look, apparently it could reactivate my deleted account.

So, in truth, it may not even be deleted – just stored!  If that is true – how long is it stored and, as I asked for it to be deleted, ‘Why is it stored at all?’